Although it differs significantly from the latest Forbes list of the most valuable brands in terms of figures, both rankings show an important trend: technology is the biggest and fastest-growing category in 2015. It grew by 24% from 2014; only retail demonstrated the same pace. The top three leaders are the tech icons: Apple ($246.9 billion, + 67%), Google ($173.6 billion, +9%) and Microsoft ($115.5 billion, + 28%).

Pic.: Top 10 brands in the BrandZ 2015 ranking

Overall, all 100 brands on the list demonstrated 14% growth from 2014, 2%+ from the previous period, which is about $3.3 trillion in nominal financial value.

Facebook was the fastest riser having added +99% from 2014. Tremendous growth was also shown by Apple (+67%), Intel (+58%), the U.S.-based natural fast food chain Chipotle (+44%), Audi (+43), Verizon (+36%) and the three Chinese companies: an insurance giant China Life (+44%), a financial company China Construction Bank (38%), and a web services company Baidu (+35%).

Amid the general stagnation or fall in brand value of European power brands (+31% over the ten years, -9.3% in 2014), Chinese brands rise and demonstrate a phenomenal growth by 1,004% from 2006, when the BrandZ ranking was launched first. The Chinese leading e-commerce retailer Alibaba ($64 billion) which entered the BrandZ ranking for the first time this year, has overtaken both Amazon and Walmart. In total, the U.S. brands have grown in value steadily by 137% over the ten years (+15% in 2014), mainly due to the tech companies in the top 10.

Pic.: Brand value and dynamics across all categories of the BrandZ 2015 ranking

While tech and retail both rose by 24%, the worst performers across all categories were global banks and luxury that lost 2% and 6% respectively. Cars (+3%), personal care (+2%), regional banks (+1%) and apparel (+0.1%) showed almost no dynamics.

The full ranking with more analysis and infographics are available here.